Monday, September 30, 2013

According to to Dato Ahmad Maslan at Parliament today said subsidies rationalization recently to decrease the amount of subsidies given to people earning more than RM 3,000/month. No substantial evidence to prove this.

Yes. Bigger car use more fuel than small size car or motorcycle but where is the fact to support it?

Questions:

How many people earning RM 3,000/month use car (big car & small size) & motorcycle?

How many people use credit card or cash to purchase fuel at petrol station?

What is their daily habit (behavior) of customer - individual and business?

How much subsidies per petrol station ? where is the hot spot?

Recommendation:

Open data matter! With data from petrol station, we can visualize the energy flow in the country.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Following the repeal of the Emergency (Public Order and Crimes Prevention) Ordinance 1969, Putrajaya is now turning to the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (PCA) to facilitate preventive detention and detention without trial.

The authorities claim that the Emergency Ordinance had served the country well, particularly against criminal organisations, and thus certain elements of the law must be retained and thus Putrajaya is trying to push for several crucial amendments to the PCA during the ongoing Dewan Rakyat session.

How drastic are the changes?

Essentially, the core structure of the PCA is retained, whereby a person suspected of having committed a registrable offense shall appear before an inquiry.

The registrable offenses is outlined in the PCA and generally cover crimes such as triad activities, drug trafficking and organised crime. If a person is found guilty by the inquiry, he will then be placed on a registry and will be subject to certain conditions.

The proposed amendments stipulates two conditions that can be imposed by a board through an inquiry, namely a detention order and a supervision order.

A detention order allows for detention without trial for a period of two years. This order can be extended by another two years by the board.

This order can only be applied if the inquiry has concluded that the registered person has committed two or more serious offenses and had contravened the conditions of the person's earlier supervision order.

A supervision order allows for a registered person to be attached with an electronic monitoring device and imposes conditions such as restriction on internet use or meeting with other registered persons.

The supervision order is applied on a person in the registry who the inquiry has concluded had committed two or more more non-serious offences and had not received such an order before or had previously received a supervision order but had complied with all conditions imposed.

Does the home minister still call the shots?

Unlike the repealed Internal Security Act 1960 and the Emergency Ordinance, the minister will no longer have a free hand in ordering detentions.

Instead, detentions under the PCA can only be imposed by a three-member board, which will be led by either a Federal Court judge, a Court of Appeal judge or a High Court judge.

Can you appeal against the board's decision?

No. The newly introduced Section 15A(1) explicitly states that no judicial review is allowed against the board's decision or findings in the exercise of its discretionary powers.

However, a judicial review is still applicable on matters concerning the board's compliance with procedural requirements.

The requirements are spelled out in the newly included Section 7C that outlines the criteria a person must fulfill in order to be issued a detention or supervision order.

However, there is still a grey area, because while Section 15A(1) precludes judicial review for the board's discretionary powers, Section 19A(2) allows for a High Court review of the board's decision when ordering a detention or extending a registered person's detention period.

Will a registered person have legal representation?

No. The newly introduced Section 9(5) stipulates that the registered person and witnesses at the inquiry have no access to legal representation. However, the registered person can have a lawyer when his own evidence is being taken and recorded by the inquiry officer.

A registered person will also be denied legal representation when the inquiry officer quizzes him in detention, under the newly introduced Section 9A.

What measures are there to ensure transparency?

The home minister will be required under Section 19E to submit an annual report on all activities related to detention orders under this law to Parliament.

The board and inquiry must also serve a copy of their findings on the person who is the subject of their investigation and will be decided on.

However, Section 21A allows the board, inquiry officers or any public servant to withhold information if they deem it to be in the public's interest or for the safety of a witness, family or associates.

How long more will we have detention without trial?

At least five years. Section 19F states that the sections concerning detention without trial must be reviewed by the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara every five years.

If the review is not conducted, the sections concerning detention without trial will cease to be in effect.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

You know you have lived too long in Sweden when:1. It's acceptable to eat lunch at 11.00. 2. You rummage through your plastic bag collection to see which ones you should keep to take to the store and which can be sacrificed to garbage. 3. You associate pea soup with Thursday. 4. The first thing you do on entering a bank/post office/pharmacy etc. is look for the queue number machine. 5. You accept that you will have to queue to take a queue number. 6. A sharp intake of breath has become part of your vocabulary, as has the sound 'ahh'. 7. You associate Friday afternoon with a trip to system bolaget. 8. Your native language has seriously deteriorated; you begin to "eat medicine" and "hire videos". 9. Your front door step is beginning to resemble a shoe shop. 10. When a stranger on the street smiles at you, you assume that:a. he is drunk;b. he is insane; c. he is American;d. he is all of the above. 11. The only reason for getting of the boat in Helsinki is to eat pizza and cheap alcohol. 12. Your old habit of being "fashionably late" is no longer acceptable. You are always on time. 13. When you don´t think you get any help from the doctor.14. When it doesn´t disturb you that people have their feet up on the seat next to you on trams, trains and buses.15. You take off your shoes in libraries.16. You know that "religious holiday" means "let's get pissed." 17. You use mmmm as a conversation filler. 18. An outside temperature of 9 degrees Celsius is mild. 19. When someone asks for "three cheers", you say "hoorah, hoorah, hoorah, hoorah". 20. You have only two facial expressions, smiling or blank. 21. You think riding a racing bike in the snow is a perfectly sensible thing to do. 22. You think it's more fun to stay at home and drink then go out. 23. You wear warm clothing when it's 25 degrees plus in April - because it's April. 24. You wear shorts and t-shirt when it's barely 10 degrees in July - because it's July. 25. You get extremely annoyed when the bus is two minutes late. 26. You become a punctuality freak and dump your friends for being late more than once. 27. When a stranger asks you a question in the streets, you think it's normal to just keep walking, saying nothing. 28. You've been engaged for four years and don't have any plans to get married. 29. You and your friends know exactly the same information, and have the same attitudes and beliefs in the value of Social Democracy. 30. You think black rimmed glasses are cool. 31. Your wardrobe now consists of 20 different shades of black and grey. 33. You don't question the concept of 'telephone time'. 34. It seems reasonable that no business can be conducted on Friday afternoons. [or the entire month of July] 35. You assume that anyone who apologies after bumping into you is a tourist. 36. You actually care if your mobile phone meets the fashion standard - and so do your new Swedish friends! 37. You get into a Mercedes taxi cab and think nothing of it. 38. Paying $10 for a cup of coffee seems reasonable. 39. You understand that when a colleague asks you out for "a drink," it will probably be a long night with a severe hangover the next day. 40. You start to think that having a sauna in the nude with a bunch of strangers is a necessary part of daily life ... and a necessary part of business. 41. You believe that when you finally win your Nobel Prize, it is best to be modest and say "Oh really, it was nothing!" 42. You get offended if, at a dinner party, someone fails to look you in the eyes after raising their glass for a toast. 43. You become extremely skilled at assembling pre-packaged furniture kits. 44. "Candles" are a permanent fixture on your weekly shopping list. 45. Most of your friends have the same names and you must use both names to distinguish between them.